New York’s Circa Central Park tries to change its bird-killing ways

Condo owners at Circa Central Park have become all too familiar with the sound made when doves cry. 

They’re taking action.

Residents of the Upper East Side condominium building at 285 West 110th Street are trying to make the property more bird-friendly, the New York Times reported. The Artimus Construction developed ranked in the top three last year of window strikes recorded by NYC Audubon.

Migratory birds have spent years flying fatally into the crescent-shaped building, which can’t see the property’s glassy windows until it’s much too late. The amount of glass can be indicative of a building’s danger to birds and floor-to-ceiling windows have only grown more popular with time.

To combat the bird death trap, Circa’s residents have moved to add dot stickers to their windows. These stickers, designed to make the glass more noticeable to avian animals, are translucent, but can be visible at certain angles, irking some residents fearful of losing their picturesque Central Park views (which may otherwise be ruined by the sound and sight of a bird collision).

One resident said there was a 50-50 split in the building about adding the dot stickers to the windows. So far, the glass and clear railings surrounding the courtyard have become a testing ground for the stickers as residents try to grow more comfortable with the idea. The price behind that courtyard update: $60,000.

One resident told a story of how birds would fly into the glass during breakfast, leaving them “twitching on the ground” while children in pajamas beheld the awful spectacle.

“People really don’t like living or working in a building that’s killing birds,” said Christine Sheppard, a biologist and researcher at the American Bird Conservancy.

The loss of Central Park views may be upsetting and even economically harmful to property values, but residents in favor of the stickers argued that bird deaths can also compromise the building’s value, fodder for awkward questions at gatherings.

The Central Park-facing part of the building is next in line to potentially get the bird-friendly window treatments.

— Holden Walter-Warner

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